Should the Founders
Hire a Chief Executive?

THE PROBLEM: How does a start-up decide if -- or when -- it needs to hire a chief executive officer? And if it decides it does need one, how does it find one?

S2io Inc. (www.s2io.com) was launched in September 2001 by five former Nortel Networks Corp. staffers. Their goal was to develop and market an integrated circuit, or chip, with embedded software, to boost the processing power of servers for data centers. The five founders, who initially worked out of their homes, have expanded S2io to the point where it now has offices...